The upset spoiled a heavily anticipated title fight between Emelianenko and Strikeforce champ Alistair Overeem, and it’s likely to provide fuel for the many critics who have questioned Emelianenko’s legacy in a quickly evolving sport.

While mocked by many fans who say Emelianenko and his team are ducking tougher competition in the UFC, the Russian nonetheless faced one of the best heavyweights who isn’t employed by the world’s biggest promotion: Brazilian jiu-jitsu ace Werdum, a former UFC fighter who’s ranked among the division’s top 10.

But Emelianenko, who entered the fight with a remarkable 29-fight undefeated streak, appeared on his way to another quick victory. Within 30 seconds of the opening bell, Emelianenko unloaded a heavy-handed combination that stunned Werdum and sent him tumbling to a seated position. Emelianenko dove in and rained down a barrage of hammerfists, but an alert Werdum quickly secured an armbar to slow the attack.

Emelianenko immediately broke free of the hold, but perhaps overly anxious, he again found himself trapped by an armbar and accompanying triangle choke. Werdum torqued the choke and armbar for nearly a half minute until a nearly unconscious Emelianenko finally relented and tapped out just 69 seconds into the fight.

As Werdum temporarily left the cage and celebrated with a mob of supporters, Emelianenko stood stoic in his corner. A stunned crowd could muster little in the way of a reaction.

The magnitude of the performance and the upset wasn’t lost on the winner.

“Thank you Fedor for the opportunity,” said Werdum, who called out Overeem after the fight. “Fedor is the best in the world. This night I beat Fedor, but Fedor is the best.”

Emelianenko didn’t make excuses for the loss and said it’s to be expected in his line of work.

“Frankly speaking … the one who doesn’t fall doesn’t stand up,” Emelianenko said through a translator. “I was concentrating on the [initial punch], and that’s why I made a mistake. … We’ll try to analyze and determine why it happened.”

Since a 2-2 run in the UFC, Werdum has since posted three straight wins under the Strikeforce banner to improve to 14-4-1. Emelianenko, meanwhile, drops to 32-2 – and with his first legit career loss – drops to 1-1 in Strikeforce.

In a co-headliner that served as a rematch of their initial December meeting, Cung Le dominated all aspects of a middleweight fight, avenged the only loss of his career, and added another highlight-reel knockout to his resume with a second-round KO of fellow striker Scott Smith.

Le dominated the duo’s first meeting and appeared to be on his way to an obvious decision victory. But in his trademark fashion, Smith unloaded a Hail Mary left-hook that wobbled and set up the eventual come-from-behind TKO win over the ex-champ.

In the rematch, though, Smith never got such an opportunity. Le continually tagged and dropped his opponent, and he easily avoided his Smith’s telegraphed takedown attempts. In the second round while maintaining a comfortable striking distance, Le turned to a familiar weapon and used a pair of spinning-back-heel kicks to set up an eventual TKO victory when the blows crushed Smith’s diaphragm and made his double over in pain.

The end came at the 1:46 mark of the second round.

“We went over two game plans,” Le said. “He was going to come at me, and I was
going to sharp-shoot and pick my shots. Or, he was going to let me beat
on him for another two-and-a-half rounds and come back. So this time, I
fought smart, let him come in, and he came into the power. He got
caught.

“Last time was his night. This time is my night.”

While saying a potential rubber match is at the discretion of CEO Scott Coker, Le did have some immediate plans to celebrate the win.

“I trained hard,” he said. “I was focused, and I ate really clean. I cut out pizza and chocolate for seven weeks, and I got a big box of chocolate-chip cookies. You ready for me? … I’m going to eat it all tonight, every single one of them.”

In the night’s lone championship bout, women’s middleweight title-holder Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos again posted a dominant performance that’s likely to make it even harder for Strikeforce officials to find future opponents.

Facing a tough and iron-chinned Jan Finney – one of the few women with big-stage experience who was willing to fight the famed striker – Santos quickly unloaded a barrage of shots, including numerous power shots. In fact, Santos knocked down Finney four times in the first round alone, and only the champ’s one-point deduction (illegal strikes to the back of the head) bought the challenger time to recover. Finney survived the round and even unloaded a big lunging right hand to open the second, but Santos quickly continued her unrelenting attack.

Battered, bloodied and bruised from the mounting shots (Santos landed 141 strikes to her opponent’s 23), Finney finally was forced to a kneeling/turtle position midway through the second round. After repeated warnings from Kim Winslow to fight back, the ref finally and mercifully halted the action at the 2:56 mark of the round.

While oddsmakers gave Finney just a 5 to 12 percent chance of winning the fight, Santos said she never underestimated her opponent, who previously fought the likes of Miesha Tate, Julie Kedzie and Shayna Baszler.

“My opponent was very strong, but I trained hard,” said Santos, who
rarely used a translator as she works to improve her English. “I was
ready for war. … I never think my fights will be easy.”

With her second successful title defense, Santos moves to 10-1 (4-0 SF) and likely sets up a future bout with Erin Toughill. Finney, meanwhile, drops to 8-8 with the loss in her Strikeforce debut.

In the night’s opening bout, former Strikeforce lightweight champion Josh Thomson picked up a third-round submission win over a resilient Pat Healy.

Thomson, fighting for the first time he snapped an eight-fight win streak with a December title loss to Gilbert Melendez, jumped out to a quick lead with an early takedown and multiple submission attempts. Healy found himself in troublesome positions but continually found ways to escape. In fact, with takedowns and ground control, he took the second round to tie up the fight.

Thomson, though, figured out Healy’s timing in the third round, avoided the takedowns, and countered with effective strikes and kicks. And even when Healy forced the fight to the mat midway through the round, Thomson escaped, took his opponent’s back and worked for the rear-naked choke. Although able to fend off the choke for the better part of a minute, Healy finally relented at the 4:27 mark and tapped out from the submission.

Thomson (17-3 MMA, 8-2 SF) is now 9-1 over the past four years, and he improves to a remarkable 8-2 with Strikeforce. Healy (23-16 MMA, 1-1 SF), meanwhile, snaps a three-fight win streak and suffers just his second loss in seven fights.

In un-aired preliminary-card action,Chris Cope (4-1 MMA, 1-0 SF) scored a second-round TKO of Ron Keslar
(5-2 MMA, 0-1 SF) in a 175-pound catchweight bout, and early WEC fighter Bret Bergmark (6-1 MMA, 1-0 SF) – fighting for the first time more than two years – scored a unanimous-decision win to deliver fellow welterweight Vagner Rocha (5-1 MMA, 0-1 SF) his first career loss.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?